As promised I'll try to introduce the MMORPGs announced for the second half of 2007 a bit more, so people are aware that there are games whose name doesn't start with a "W". First in line, due to seniority, is Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS). PotBS was announced for Spring 2004. It didn't quite make that release date. It got the editor's choice award for best graphics from the E3 2005. After not quite making a promised release date in June 2007, the game is now expected for sometime in fall 2007. In spite of the delays, the game seems to be well on track to be actually released, as they now gained SOE as publisher, while keeping control of the game design. The good part of that news is that PotBS will be included in the Station Access Pass, in case you want to play several of SOE's games.

In PotBS the player controls a character in the Caribbean in 1720. You get the choice between 4 careers: Navy Captain, Privateer, Freetrader, and of course Pirate. Sorry, no ninjas, apparently. There are no "races", but 4 nations, Britain, France, Spain and the Pirate nation. Every character controls a ship, but can also move on foot through the towns of the Caribbean, or in instances or on ships, doing sword fighting. The developers said that sword combat will be pretty similar to the kind of combat we know all too well from other games. So the more interesting part is the ship-to-ship combat, which should be similar to what you can see in games like Sid Meier's Pirates!.

Of huge interest to me is the fact that PotBS will have a completely player-run economy. Every player has 10 plots on which he can place various production buildings. Some gather raw materials, like wood or iron, some make intermediate goods like nails or ship masts, and at the top of the pyramid there are shipyards making ships. The trick is that to build one ship you need far more than 10 different manufactured and raw goods, thus you can't have a complete production chain on your own. If you are shipbuilder, you buy intermediate goods from players who themselves buy raw materials from other players. If they manage to balance this right, this could be very exciting. The website also mentions local and regional auction houses with profit to be made by trading, buying cheap where the goods are produced and transporting them to where they are needed. This is getting better and better. This is like EVE without the boring asteroid mining!

After mentioning EVE of course the big question is how PvP will work out. If I want to play the economy and trading game, I wouldn't want to be sunk and plundered by a level 50 (which is the cap) pirate every 5 minutes. But apparently I don't need to worry too much. PotBS has lots of ports from the different nation, and only if a port is "in unrest" it becomes a PvP zone, until one nation conquers it and it becomes peaceful again. If a nation conquers all ports, it "wins" and the server resets to the original distribution of ports. So if you like PvP you can head towards the PvP ports, and if you don't like PvP you can stay away from them.

But economy and PvP isn't all there is to PotBS. The game also has a PvE quest-based part, where you do missions against computer-controlled enemies, in ship or sword combat. That is how you gain experience points and go up in levels. Supposedly that isn't much of a grind, with people speaking of about 2 months of play for an average player to reach the level cap. The "end game" doesn't have raids, but is dominated by PvP and nations trying to take over each other's ports. If you don't like PvP, you can still play your part by helping the economy of your nation.

All in all Pirates of the Burning Sea looks good to me. Maybe the graphics have suffered a bit from the long development, but the advantage of that is that you don't need the very latest high-end machine to run it. But the gameplay promises to be significantly different from the usual EQ/WoW/LotRO mold. There aren't even elves or dwarves! Of course I can't give a final verdict before I have played it, because features always look good on paper before you see them in game. But right now I'm looking forward to playing this later this year.
- posted by Tobold Stoutfoot @ 3:22 PM Permanent Link
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Comments:

Hell yeah PotBS looks amazing. The economy is also the driving force in my excitement for the game simply because I want to own land and harvest things for my friends/family/guild. I love being a useful crafter/tradesman and this will play to those passions.

I still have a hard time getting excited about it. What shows progression? I mean CoH was fun for me but didn't have a lasting appeal. I'm currently not in any MMO and enjoying my time off ha. I may try it if it comes out with at least a month or two between other MMOs. I'm thinking my main game to play right now will be WAR, but I might try Conan too.

I have to admit this game was more or less at the edge of my personal gaming radar's "range". But now you've pointed me to it, I am kinda stoked. I am tired, as somebody once put it, "of Elves and Pixieshit", so I would just LOVE to be able play in a game where I can fire my broadside cannon and plunder Spanish ships :)

On a nationalistic note, I am a bit miffed they left the Dutch out of the game. Hey! In 1720 we were still one of the maritime and mercantile head honchos of the world! Grrr....maybe in an expansion?

As a side note, now that I'm thinking "historical accuracy", I have a feeling that the game won't feature the African slave trade (which is understandable).

I don't think more than 50% of players are going to be pirate. After all, all other character classes are going to be available only to the other nations. You can't play a pirate and then go trading goods peacefully all over Carribean. So me, I'm more interested in the other nations than in playing a pirate.

But nation balance could be an issue. I mean, who would want to play the French? :)

Pirates have the roughest life actually, it seems. They can't capture and hold ports for the length of time the Nations can, they have no real homes except a few pirate own ports, and when the chips are down everyone's out against them, because they're the only ones that can through a port into contention.

At least, that's how I think it works. There's a good few topics on the forums about how Pirates are knickered. They'll likely have the biggest numbers at 1st, but when people realize that life's easier as a Brit, Spaniard, or a Frenchman, they'll move on and become a Privateer for those nations.

Only the truest pirates of them all will be left clinging to the old ways. As it should be.